The Insurance Project will examine the moral basis of, and legal and policy framework for, health and life insurance in light of the increase that the Human Genome Initiative (HGI) is expected to generate in genetic screening capacity to predict disease, disability, and premature death. To carry out this research, the Project will assemble a core group of 12 experts from ethics, law, regulation, business economics, actuary science, medicine, and genetics, including persons with high level experience in health and life insurance; the high quality of this group, and its access to all necessary data, is assured by the ACLI and HIAA endorsement of the Project and by the presence of a national advisory committee. During the first 15 months of the Project, the fore group will analyze the numerous unresolved issues in this field, and each member will prepare a paper on an aspect of the topic. Through a discussion of these and other sources of information and evaluation, the group will draft guidelines for the insurance industry and policy makers on the appropriate use of genetic screening in health and life insurance. The Project will then sponsor a national meeting at which both the research group's papers and the guidelines will be presented, debated, and (if necessary) modified in light of the discussion, prior to their publication in journal and/or book form to enable wide dissemination within the insurance industry as well as to consumer, employee, and employer organizations and state and federal officials. Since the products of the HGI have yet to be applied in insurance, an opportunity exists to forestall adverse effects. In the process of developing practical guidance to balance the needs of insurers with individuals' interests in obtaining insurance at reasonable cost, in having their privacy respected, in gaining access to useful medical information, and so forth, the Project will also probe the fundamental premises of insurance as they are challenged by the new predictive capabilities of molecular genetics.